Chambers Handbook for Judges - Federal Judicial Center

the court and, insofar as possible, for counsel and witnesses. Four different
approaches to scheduling have been adopted:
• Selection of a specific date and time by the judge or judge’s staff
with notice to both counsel;
• Selection of a date and time convenient for all involved after
telephone or personal conferences among counsel and court personnel;
• Selection of a date and time acceptable to the court by one attorney
who then gives notice to other counsel; and
• Permanent scheduling by the court of a weekly or monthly “motion
day” at which any motions that are at issue may be heard as
a matter of course, or, alternatively, for which particular motions
are scheduled through one of the processes described above.
In some courts in which a number of motions are heard on a single
day, the following procedure is used. Several days in advance, the docket
clerk or courtroom deputy prepares a list of the motions to be heard on
a particular day, including the names of the cases and docket numbers.
For each motion, a law clerk or secretary assembles the record, a copy
of each memorandum, and all other relevant materials. (In addition,
for motions of any complexity, some judges ask a law clerk to draft a
bench memo summarizing the issues. Judges usually do some preparation
in advance of the hearing date.) These are brought to the courtroom
a short time before the opening of court and are placed close to
the judge’s bench. A large number of motions may be scheduled, and
the assembly of records and materials may be time-consuming. Organization
and preparation are the keys to efficiency. Attorneys in a case
are responsible for ensuring that witnesses are present at evidentiary
hearings—either voluntarily or through use of subpoena. To avoid protracted
waiting periods for other lawyers who have motions to be heard
on the same day, most courts that have a regular “motion day” do not
permit testimony to be heard on that day without a special order from
the judge.
In courts that hear oral argument on a number of motions on the
same day, it is not unusual for the court to receive requests for a con-
30 Chambers Handbook for Judges’ Law Clerks and Secretaries